-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee expressed concern over unabated regularisation of unauthorised colonies in Delhi by the authorities in violation of law for political gains and pleaded the court to intervene to stop it to prevent a chaotic situation in the capital. It also accused the Land and Development Office (L&DO) for encouraging encroachment of public land. Referring to media reports, the committee said the Delhi...

-Hindustan Times The retrograde amendment would amount to creating an RTI ministry under the government Fifteen years is a good time for appraisal of an institution. The Right to Information (RTI) Act, called the sunshine legislation and promulgated in 2005, certainly deserves an in-depth study and assessment for accelerating the flow of information to the public. This calls for upgrading skills, infrastructure, processes and alacrity of response from Public authorities. A decadal...

-Mumbai Mirror On July 22, the Lok Sabha passed a set of amendments to the Right to Information Act, which – if enacted into law – will have dangerous consequences for open and transparent governance. Notably, these amendments were first proposed towards the fag end of the previous NDA government’s tenure, but in the face of sustained protests, were not carried forward. Nevertheless, one of the first legislative acts of the government...

-IndiaToday.in Earlier this month, Chief Minister of the state Kamal Nath had asked the authorities to draft a legislation on Right to Water aiming at ensuring adequate water for every person in the urban areas. * According to the Right to Water Act, 55 litres of water per person per day will be given for usage * The Right to Water act will also have stringent provisions for preventing wastage of water * Madhya...

-Financial Express Given the health impacts of Bt brinjal on animals, one needs to keep in mind that the GM crop surely cannot be declared as safe. Bt brinjal has been found to be released illegally and predictably it has sparked furious reactions on all sides. Some have unsurprisingly already started to ask for Bt brinjal moratorium to be lifted in the light of illegal Bt brinjal cultivation. In the light of...